DOCSLIB.ORG

John Scottus Eriugena (815–877) Research, 1970–2020

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
John Scottus Eriugena (815–877) Research, 1970–2020 HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies ISSN: (Online) 2072-8050, (Print) 0259-9422 Page 1 of 13 Original Research The 50-year jubileum of the Society for the Promotion of Eriugenian Studies in the John Scottus Eriugena (815–877) research, 1970–2020 Author: This article charters the history and work of the Society for the Promotion of Eriugenian 1,2 Johann Beukes Studies (SPES), which celebrated its 50-year jubileum in 2020. After a brief introduction to the Affiliations: thought of John Scottus Eriugena (815–877), with emphasis on his primary text (in five 1Department of Philosophy volumes), Periphyseon, written between 864 and 866 and condemned as heretical in 1050, and Classics, Faculty of 1059, 1210 and finally in 1225, the development of SPES over the past five decades is surveyed Humanities, University of the in detail and connected to an outstanding work published in the Brill’s Companions to the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa Christian Tradition series in Leiden (2020), under the editorship of Adrian Guiu (A Companion to John Scottus Eriugena). The article is descriptive and analytical in its presentation of the 2Center for the History of relevant history of ideas and synthetical in its attempt to coherently integrate the most recent Philosophy and Science, secondary texts on the relevant philosophical themes in Eriugena research. Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Contribution: The article contributes to the Society for the Promotion of Eriugenian Studies’ Studies, Radboud University, 50-year jubileum by summarising its conference outputs over the past five decades in an Nijmegen, Netherlands extensive overview as well as connecting its work to A Companion to John Scottus Eriugena Corresponding author: (Brill, Leiden, 2020), thereby furthering the society’s efforts and specialist research outputs to Johann Beukes, a broader, non-specialised readership. [email protected] Keywords: John Scottus Eriugena (815–877); a companion to John Scottus Eriugena; Adrian Dates: Guiu; Edouard Jeauneau; Willemien Otten; John O’Meara; Periphyseon; Society for the Received: 11 Jan. 2021 Promotion of Eriugena Studies; SPES; Inglis Sheldon-Williams. Accepted: 19 Apr. 2021 Published: 31 May 2021 How to cite this article: Introduction Beukes, J., 2021, ‘The 50-year jubileum of the Society for More than three centuries after it was written, the primary text of the only speculative Western the Promotion of Eriugenian philosopher from the Carolingian period in Medieval philosophy met a cruel fate. John Scottus Studies in the John Scottus Eriugena’s (815–877) magistral five-volume dialogue Periphyseon (written between 864 and 866; cf. Eriugena (815–877) research, 1970–2020’, HTS Teologiese Eriugena 1996–2003), in which an enigmatic speculative philosophy was developed based on both Studies/ Theological Studies the Greek and Latin patristic and philosophical traditions and which could be regarded as a 77(4), a6456. https://doi. sophisticated philosophical interchange between the Medieval West and East, was condemned as org/10.4102/hts.v77i4.6456 heretical in 1050, 1059, 1210 and finally in 1225, as a precursor to the infamous Paris condemnations Copyright: of 1277. The final condemnation of thePeriphyseon compromised its commentary potential and steady © 2021. The Authors. historical reception as well as restricted the stature and influence of its author in high scholasticism. Licensee: AOSIS. This work Given the ‘widespread antipathy towards philosophical thought’ (Lahey 2020:448) in early is licensed under the Creative Commons 13th-century Paris, several theologians interpreted the Periphyseon as pantheistic and declared its Attribution License. contents heretical, thereby rendering the work effectively obsolete. All available copies of the work were sent to Rome by Pope Honorius III (Cencio Savelli, 1150–1227, Pope 1216–1227) to be destroyed. A few manuscripts nevertheless stayed in circulation and the work was eventually printed in Oxford in 1681, but this printed version was put on the infamous Index of Prohibited Books in 1684 and kept on it for nearly three centuries, before the Index itself expired in the 1960s (cf. Carabine 2000:23). The consequence of the Periphyseon’s unfortunate condemnation is that the specialist Eriugena research1 is still a relatively young domain, given the vastness and age of the standardised Medieval canon. It was only in 1925 and 1933 that solid introductions to Eriugena’s life and thought were presented in an exquisite English monography by Henry Bett from Cambridge Read online: University (Johannes Scotus Erigena: A Study in Medieval Philosophy; Bett 1925) and a magnificent Scan this QR French (Louvain) dissertation by Maïeul Cappuyns (Jean Scot Érigène. Sa vie, son oeuvre, sa pensée; code with your smart phone or 1.For accessible introductions to Eriugena’s life and work, see Bett (1925:11–33); Carabine (2000:13–26); Copleston (1993:112–135); mobile device Costambeys, Innes and MacLean (2014:1–30); Grabmann (1957:192–214); Haren (1985:75–82); Hyman, Walsh and Williams to read online. (2010:145–148); Marenbon (1981:88–111, 1988:48–52); McKitterick (2004:1–27); Moran (1989:35–47, 1990:131–151, 2008); Otten (1991:40–81); Sheldon-Williams (1967:518–531) and Weiner (2007:1–40). http://www.hts.org.za Open Access Page 2 of 13 Original Research Cappuyns 1933), both to a large extent based on cross Eriugena translated the complete, extant Pseudo-Dionysius references between Eriugena and several early scholastics corpus from Greek into Latin. Another translation of the preceding 1225, thus before its final condemnation. Dionysian corpus was, however, already completed in 827 by the abbot Hilduin of Saint Denis, chaplain to Charles’ father, John Scottus Eriugena (815–877) Louis I (‘The Pious’, 778–840), by request of the emperor of Constantinople, Michael II (770–829). This translation was and the Periphyseon (864–866) presented as a gift to Louis, yet Charles demanded a unique Eriugena seems to be ‘a man of many names’ (Carabine translation from the Carolingian court. Eriugena swiftly 2000:13): in Irish Gaelic and English alone he is referred to as completed the new translation with distinction, on grounds of John Scottus Eriugena, Iohannes Scotus, Scottigena and which he became the emperor’s academic guest and protégé.3 Erigena, with several variations in English and other languages. There probably will never be consensus about an Eriugena, thus, initially made impact on the Carolingian authentic or ‘correct’ proper name. In addition, there is often court as an arts lecturer, followed by his role as a court confusion outside the discipline of Medieval philosophy translator specialising in translations from Greek to Latin regarding the ‘other John Scotus’ (John Duns Scotus, Duns (cf. Carabine 2000:16–17; Erismann 2020:93): Apart from his Scotus or simply ‘Scotus’, ca. 1266–1308), the remarkable translation of the Corpus Dionysiacum, he also embarked on Franciscan from the late 13th century. However, the confusion translating the Quaestiones ad Thalassium of Maximus surrounding Eriugena’s many names is unnecessary: both Confessor and the De hominis opificio of Gregory of Nyssa Scot(t)us and Eri(u)gena, or the more forced Scottigena, simply (which Eriugena retitled as De imagine). These translations indicate that this court scholar2 ‘Iohannes’ hailed from Ireland distinguished Eriugena from his contemporaries, precisely and gave himself the tautological sobriquet ‘Scottus Eriugena’ because very few Western scholars were able to read Greek (‘John Irish, the Irish-born’; cf. Siewers 2020:9) – because he (just as few Greek writers from Byzantium could read Latin). wanted to emphasise his Irish heritage and Northern English It was indeed the quality of his translation of the Corpus connection with Alcuin (730–804), the formidable academic Dionysiacum that left the impression that Eriugena was the administrator and monastery reformer from York and later only thinker who could somehow ‘unite’ Rome and Athens principal of the Carolingian palace school in Aix-la-Chapelle. in Aix-la-Chapelle: the quality reveals itself therein that To avoid confusion with the 13th-century John Duns Scotus, Eriugena was not intimidated by technical problems in the custom in contemporary research is that John Scottus translating the always obscure Dionysius’ Neoplatonic Eriugena is referred to simply as ‘Eriugena’, with the exception conceptualisations but illuminated them with creative of titles and abstracts of books and articles on Eriugena, where expositions4 in Latin. With this translation Eriugena the full (presumed) name is normally used. penetrated the heart of Neoplatonism which he systematically redeveloped in a unique and original speculative philosophy, Eriugena arrived in the 840s at the Carolingian court of Charlemagne’s (‘Charles the Great’, 748–814) grandson, 3.The translated Corpus Dionysiacum consists of De Divinis Nominibus (The Divine Names), De Mystica Theologia (The Mystical Theology), De Coelesti Hierarchia (The Charles II (‘The Bald’, 823–877). He lectured the seven liberal Celestial Hierarchy), De Ecclesiastica Hierarchia (The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy) and Epistulae (Letters). These editorial titles of the Dionysian corpus are not arts (the trivium and quadrivium) for some time at the palace straightforward: Eriugena (in Periphyseon IV 757C and 759C; Corpus Christianorum school, extensively employing Boethius’ (ca.477–524) De Continuatio Mediaevalis 164 238.1139 & 246.1274–5), for instance,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Medieval Western Philosophy: the European Emergence
    Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Change Series I, Culture and Values, Volume 9 History of Western Philosophy by George F. McLean and Patrick J. Aspell Medieval Western Philosophy: The European Emergence By Patrick J. Aspell The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy 1 Copyright © 1999 by The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy Gibbons Hall B-20 620 Michigan Avenue, NE Washington, D.C. 20064 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Aspell, Patrick, J. Medieval western philosophy: the European emergence / Patrick J. Aspell. p.cm. — (Cultural heritage and contemporary change. Series I. Culture and values ; vol. 9) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Philosophy, Medieval. I. Title. III. Series. B721.A87 1997 97-20069 320.9171’7’090495—dc21 CIP ISBN 1-56518-094-1 (pbk.) 2 Table of Contents Chronology of Events and Persons Significant in and beyond the History of Medieval Europe Preface xiii Part One: The Origins of Medieval Philosophy 1 Chapter I. Augustine: The Lover of Truth 5 Chapter II. Universals According to Boethius, Peter Abelard, and Other Dialecticians 57 Chapter III. Christian Neoplatoists: John Scotus Erigena and Anselm of Canterbury 73 Part Two: The Maturity of Medieval Philosophy Chronology 97 Chapter IV. Bonaventure: Philosopher of the Exemplar 101 Chapter V. Thomas Aquinas: Philosopher of the Existential Act 155 Part Three: Critical Reflection And Reconstruction 237 Chapter VI. John Duns Scotus: Metaphysician of Essence 243 Chapter
    [Show full text]
  • Filosofia De Escoto.Pdf
    THE NELSON PHILOSOPHICAL TEXTS General Editor Raymond Klibansky Frothingham Professor of Logic and Metaphysics McGill University Honorary Fellow of the Warburg Institute University of London Nihil obstat: Roy Effler, o.f.m. Censor Deputatus Imprimi potest: Eligius Weir, o.f.m. Minister Provincialis Nihil obstat: Philotheus Boehner, o.f.m. Censor Deputatus Imprimatur : ' 4" Josephus Aloisius Episcopus Bujfalensis Smtnt Itwnnpftwrttlf ro (irncmt fixv< »ctti«W *(fileni tmitr mCpt" rt& lift* uft mrc \vt(xfiqi amis p \mh (idnc ys pmo lit pf nt«ttoUrt»te -n:omuli?-. Si p'V «j" a- pmo ofao \n 1 1TB TOWIC mfll!l?0iji'r [i run00 S oii-rtrhi ncf iip^Jdcm 6* emnpSui.pommel gjpWolitw »n •i|cnsg 0ntcc%r per h?c nir at I ens ihr r*<wie*&oumrr's nccns <jt» saffntflrijni <f u \}<*tm time }-mcn iyenvi [ivb pint)fpffim*tpttmr f«iTmn tt*$Wfi»t,ttttHftt,et' niu6ififtnrc%. '>i:'»c«*i!>wpnTicrn»«',,v)*'" Iroi i Wf,4*notnjMfi;r«f»^i&i« fitpnn pfttwti Hlo $° n^mn^misy? p<nfe nnofcfiflr mnmifi ; ttanM fs i nrpfn& ne arftnr-ml'w mufti' in jrftis jjr ft no teft n va'^itinotU'jo'nDntr ci6 w (Jft,|6 '"£$ 'alms i fme'enu cWidil mint r»i«jf tiotthnrm nans pB*fft rmaaflrftl p'c(flh«frnU8ttrfHflaTiimfl \\?i\i\x ni pis lih&j en- injprniara otcnr SSrtnf^fi^ r paa «3 «rt fine ci(pnttma i^a^ (l)lr <*£(,. m-t f^t gtvile g-t«Tnc'Tn|pnt*o,copn»'6»tnptilt g^ppCjipjf iKKittlh ?impftiifi0oicttfci$utm ^Strintfnnnl mm jj>no6tr |sjc'T inifirmntonWrcnt$> otbcfp mttwg cf &cyxitwnam omi raj^t * (> on? moo' aj$-' 5? * r^Nft 0^«'riM«;Vo»sc»t«flm5»ir,nirj)i'a vnTe'tc «i)pta r*^ aeftipf JH-tteefl-cna ie»rf»r fomnne tfiv\ «nnftot vtnnta iwnir ca gr*Yi"aiuis pirhfc ernn Hfafmtttv Beginning of the Ordinatio of Duns Scotus From MS lat.
    [Show full text]
  • Eriugena's Christian Neoplatonism and Its Sources in Patristic
    Eriugena’s Christian Neoplatonism and its Sources in Patristic Philosophy and Ancient Philosophy (I) 16:00 - 18:30 Tuesday, 20th August, 2019 Room 1 Presentation type Workshop [No author data] Discussant: Willemien Otten This workshop analyses Eriugena's Christian Platonic ideas on Theology, Cosmology, Anthropology (including Epistemology and Ethics) and their sources in Patristic philosophical theology and in ancient philosophy – two strictly interrelated, often inseparable fields. It includes world leaders in Eriugena studies; papers offer important and novel insights into Eriugena's thought and its sources. 508 Eriugena and Maximos on Divisions of Being Andrew Louth University of Durham, Durham, United Kingdom Abstract The Latin title of Eriugena’s principal work Periphyseon is De divisione naturae. As he himself makes clear, by his citation from Maximos the Confessor, his notion of the division of nature is derived from, or at least inspired by, Maximos, who was himself inheriting a pattern of division or distinction from earlier writers, notably Gregory of Nyssa, whom Eriugena himself knew and had translated. The problem is: in what way is Eriugena indebted to Maximos over this central notion? The paper begins by putting Eriugena’s work, of both translation and speculative metaphysics, in context in his life and work, emphasizing Eriugena’s basic formation as a Latin, indeed Augustinian, theologian (though original in his interpretation), in terms of which his indebtedness to the Greek theology he translated is to be interpreted. Initially, it appears that the notion of division of nature was conceived of in dialectical terms, however, as Eriugena developed the notion from book II onwards, it becomes primarily metaphysical.
    [Show full text]
  • Augustine and the Art of Ruling in the Carolingian Imperial Period
    Augustine and the Art of Ruling in the Carolingian Imperial Period This volume is an investigation of how Augustine was received in the Carolingian period, and the elements of his thought which had an impact on Carolingian ideas of ‘state’, rulership and ethics. It focuses on Alcuin of York and Hincmar of Rheims, authors and political advisers to Charlemagne and to Charles the Bald, respectively. It examines how they used Augustinian political thought and ethics, as manifested in the De civitate Dei, to give more weight to their advice. A comparative approach sheds light on the differences between Charlemagne’s reign and that of his grandson. It scrutinizes Alcuin’s and Hincmar’s discussions of empire, rulership and the moral conduct of political agents during which both drew on the De civitate Dei, although each came away with a different understanding. By means of a philological–historical approach, the book offers a deeper reading and treats the Latin texts as political discourses defined by content and language. Sophia Moesch is currently an SNSF-funded postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford, working on a project entitled ‘Developing Principles of Good Govern- ance: Latin and Greek Political Advice during the Carolingian and Macedonian Reforms’. She completed her PhD in History at King’s College London. Augustine and the Art of Ruling in the Carolingian Imperial Period Political Discourse in Alcuin of York and Hincmar of Rheims Sophia Moesch First published 2020 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation.
    [Show full text]
  • Theories and Images of Creation in Northern Europe in the Twelfth Century
    Art History ISSN 0141-6790 Vol. 22 No. 1 March 1999 pp. 3-55 In the Beginning: Theories and images of creation in Northern Europe in the twelfth century Conrad Rudolph 'Logic has made me hated by the world!' So Peter Abelard thought and wrote to his former lover, the brilliant Heloise, in probably his last letter to her before his death in 1142, after having been virtually driven from Paris by Bernard of Clairvaux, the austere Cistercian mystic and perhaps the most powerful ecclesiastical politician of Western Europe.1 Characteristically for Abelard in matters of self-conception, he was exaggerating. Logic had made him hated not by the world but by only a portion of it. While this was certainly an influential portion and one that had almost succeeded in destroying him, it could never do so entirely. In fact, logic had made Abelard 'the Socrates of the Gauls, the great Plato of the West, our Aristotle ... the prince of scholars'2- and this, this great fame and the almost unprecedented influence that accompanied it, was as much the problem as logic was. In a word, Abelard had been caught up in the politics of theology. The time was one of great theological inquiry, challenging, as it did, the very authority of divine revelation on the most fundamental level, and at a moment when both interest in secular learning and the number of students were dramatically increasing - all factors that can hardly be over-emphasized. But for certain elements within the Church, more still was at stake. And this was nothing less than a perceived assault on one of the basic underpinnings of the complex relationship between religion, theology, society and political power.
    [Show full text]
  • BRUNO : Immanence and Transcendence in De La Causa, Principio Et Uno, Dialogue Ii Dilwyn Knox
    BRUNO : IMMANENCE AND TRANSCENDENCE IN DE LA causa, PRINCIPIO ET UNO, DIALOGUE II Dilwyn Knox Summary The second dialogue of De la causa, principio et uno focuses on the transcendence and immanence of the intelligible world. Following Egyptian and Pythagorean doctrine, Bruno described the World Soul and Universal Intellect as immanent, blending in compatible features of Neoplatonic ontology. The position that he attributed to these ancient theologians derived in fact from Stoic philosophy – hence his emphasis on immanence and his designation of the World Soul, rather than a hypostasis Soul of the kind that ancient Neoplatonists had proposed, as intermediary between the Uni- versal Intellect and physical reality. Bruno recognized, however, the limitations of spa- tial analogies when applied to intelligible realities. To clarify his position, he adopted a distinction, originally Neoplatonic and then Arabic, between cause and principle developed by Thomas Aquinas in De principiis naturae. The original purpose of this doctrine had been to explain the simultaneous transcendence and immanence of in- telligible realities, the problem that Bruno was addressing in the second dialogue of De la causa. runo gave his first detailed account of the intelligible world, as far as Bhis surviving works reveal, in the second dialogue of De la causa, prin- cipio et uno (1584). Here he explained the relationship of God, the Universal Intellect, the World Soul and matter and, to this end, introduced the distinc- tion between principle and cause which, as its title suggests, informs the [email protected] I have used the following abbreviations in addition to those used in this journal : ch : Corpus Hermeticum, ed.
    [Show full text]
  • These Disks Contain My Version of Paul Spade's Expository Text and His Translated Texts
    These disks contain my version of Paul Spade's expository text and his translated texts. They were converted from WordStar disk format to WordPerfect 5.1 disk format, and then I used a bunch of macros and some hands-on work to change most of the FancyFont formatting codes into WordPerfect codes. Many transferred nicely. Some of them are still in the text (anything beginning with a backslash is a FancyFont code). Some I just erased without knowing what they were for. All of the files were cleaned up with one macro, and some of them have been further doctored with additional macros I wrote later and additional hand editing. This explains why some are quite neat, and others somewhat cluttered. In some cases I changed Spade's formatting to make the printout look better (to me); often this is because I lost some of his original formatting. I have occasionally corrected obvious typos, and in at least one case I changed an `although' to a `but' so that the line would fit on the same page. With these exceptions, I haven't intentionally changed any of the text. All of the charts made by graphics are missing entirely (though in a few cases I perserved fragments so you can sort of tell what it was like). Some of the translations had numbers down the side of the page to indicate location in the original text; these are all lost. Translation 1.5 (Aristotle) was not on the disk I got, so it is listed in the table of contents, but you won't find it.
    [Show full text]
  • The Postmodern Retrieval of Neoplatonism in Jean-Luc Marion
    The Postmodern Retrieval of Neoplatonism in Jean-Luc Marion and John Milbank and the Origins of Western Subjectivity in Augustine and Eriugena Hermathena, 165 (Winter, 1998), 9-70. Neoplatonism commanded important scholarly energy and poetic and literary talent in the later two-thirds of our century. Now it attracts considerable philosophical and theological interest. But this may be its misfortune. The Dominican scholar M.-D. Chenu judged the Leonine utilization of St. Thomas to have been detrimental for our understanding of his doctrine. Thomas was made an instrument of an imperialist Christianity. The use of Aquinas as a weapon against modernity required a “misérable abus.” The Holy Office made Fr. Chenu pay dearly enough for attempting accurate historical study of the Fathers and medieval doctors to make us give him heed.1 The present retrieval of our philosophical and theological past has a very different relation to institutional interests than belonged to Leonine Neothomism. The problems intellectuals now have with truthfulness come more from within themselves than from outside. There is, nonetheless, much in the character of the postmodern turn to Neoplatonism by Christian theologians to cause concern that the ecclesiastical subordination of theoria to praxis which distorted the most recent Thomism may have an analogue for Neoplatonism recovered to serve our desires.2 And if, in fact, our eye has become self-distorting, the problem in our relation to our history will be worse than anything external pressures can cause. This paper aims to begin assessing the character of this distortion in respect to a central question, our understanding of the history of western subjectivity.
    [Show full text]
  • An Original Christian Platonism (Moran 2004).Pdf
    DERMOT MORAN University College Dublin AN ORIGINAL CHRISTIAN PLATONISM: ERIUGENA'S RESPONSE TO THE TRADITION In keeping with the theme of this FIDEM conference, «Medieval Studies Today and Tomorrow», in this contribution I want to report on the tremendous blossoming of studies in the philosophy of Johannes Scottus Eriugena, witnessed by the growth in critical editions, translations and critical discussions, over not just the past 10 years, but the past 30 years'. The man known to his contemporaries as Johannes Scottus (c.800 - c.877), and who signed himself 'Eriugena' (on the manuscript of his translation of Dionysius), is without doubt the most I genuinely sophisticated philosopher of the Carolingian era, certainly to be ranked above such Carolingians as Alcuin", and indeed, stands as the most important philosopher writing in Latin between Boethius and Anselm. He is also, though this parallel remains to be explored, more or less a contemporary of the Arab Neoplatonist Al-Kindi. Eriugena can also be seen as the most significant intellectual figure to emerge from monastic Ireland, the so-called Island of Saints and Scholars, between the sixth to the ninth century (in comparison with Sedulius Scottus or Columban), although his debt to early Irish culture remains much disputed, even allowing for the fact that he worked, at least in part, with Irish-speaking scholars. In general terms, Eriugena's thought represents a valiant, even inspired attempt to present a consistent, systematic, Christian Neoplatonist account of God, the universe, and all creation, a version , I would like to thank Professor Dr. Theo Kobusch, Bochum, for inviting me to I take part in this panel.
    [Show full text]
  • THE DISSEMINATION and RECEPTION of the ORDINES ROMANI in the CAROLINGIAN CHURCH, C.750-900
    THE DISSEMINATION AND RECEPTION OF THE ORDINES ROMANI IN THE CAROLINGIAN CHURCH, c.750-900 Arthur Robert Westwell Queens’ College 09/2017 This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2 Arthur Robert Westwell Thesis Summary: The Dissemination and Reception of the Ordines Romani in the Carolingian Church, c.750- 900. The ordines romani are products of a ninth-century attempt to correct liturgy across Europe. Hitherto, scholarship has almost exclusively focused on them as sources for the practices of the city of Rome, narrowly defined, disregarding how they were received creatively and reinterpreted in a set of fascinating manuscripts which do not easily fit into traditional categories. This thesis re- envisages these special texts as valuable testimonies of intent and principle. In the past few decades of scholarship, it has been made very clear that what occurred under the Carolingians in the liturgy did not involve the imposition of the Roman rite from above. What was ‘Roman’ and ‘correct’ was decided by individuals, each in their own case, and they created and edited texts for what they needed. These individuals were part of intensive networks of exchange, and, broadly, they agreed on what they were attempting to accomplish. Nevertheless, depending on their own formation, and the atmosphere of their diocese, the same ritual content could be interpreted in numerous different ways. Ultimately, this thesis aims to demonstrate the usefulness of applying new techniques of assessing liturgical manuscripts, as total witnesses whose texts interpret each other, to the ninth century. Each of the ordo romanus manuscripts of the ninth century preserves a fascinating glimpse into the process of working out what ‘correct’ liturgy looked like, by people intensely invested in that proposition.
    [Show full text]
  • John Scotus Eriugena
    Handout 4 John Scotus Eriugena (810–877) The foremost thinker of the 9th century and author of the first ”systematic” presentation of theology His name • Eriugena means ”a native of Ireland”. • Scotus also means ”a native of Ireland”. • also called Joannes Scottus Eriugena His life • little known • He came from Ireland to France, as did others at this time (e.g. Alquin), invited by Charles the Bald, he appeared 847 in France at the court. • appointed head of the palace school • commissioned by his royal patron to translate the works of Pseudo-Dionysius into Latin • controversies on predestination and the Eucharist • probably died in France – The tradition that after the death of Charles the Bald he went to England at the invitation of Alfred the Great, that he taught in a school at Malmesbury, and was there was stabbed to death by his pupils with their pens for 'trying to get them to think' has no historical support. 2 Johannes Scottus Eriugena His writings • Translations of the works of Pseudo-Dionysius: ”De Coelesti Hierarchia”; ”De Ecclesiastica Hierarchia”; ”De Divinis Nominibus”; ”De Mystica Theologia”; ”Epistolae” • other translations • Commentaries: on John's Gospel and on Denis the Areopagite • ”Liber de Praedestinatione”, and very probably a work on the Eucharist • his main work: ”De Divisione Naturae” (On The Di- vision of Nature) (865–870) • some poems, written partly in Latin and partly in Greek His Teachings • Erigena regarded man as a microcosm of the wider universe. • on Predestination – just a single predestination, i. e., to grace and salvation, but not to sin. – heavily attacked – In the Councils of Valencia (855) and Langres (859) Eriugena's doctrine was condemned.
    [Show full text]
  • Eriugena, Johannes Scottus (C.800–C.877)
    Eriugena, Johannes Scottus (c.800–c.877) Johannes Scottus Eriugena is the most important philosopher writing in Latin between Boethius and Anselm. A Christian Neoplatonist, he developed a unique synthesis between the Neoplatonic traditions of Pseudo-Dionysius and Augustine. Eriugena knew Greek, which was highly unusual in the West at that time, and his translations of Dionysius and other Greek authors provided access to a theological tradition hitherto unknown in the Latin West. From these sources, Eriugena produced an original cosmology with Nature as the first principle. Nature, the totality of all things that are and are not, includes both God and creation, and has four divisions: nature which creates and is not created, nature which creates and is created, nature which is created and does not create, and nature which is neither created nor creates. These divisions participate in the cosmic procession of creatures from God and in their return to God. As everything takes place within Nature, God is present in all four divisions. Eriugena influenced twelfth-century Neoplatonists but was condemned in the thirteenth century for teaching the identity of God and creation. 1 Life and writings 2 Sources 3 The divisions of nature 4 Influence and significance 1 Life and writings Little is known about Eriugena’s life. His exact place and date of birth are unknown, but contemporary sources refer to him as scottus, meaning ‘Irish’, and he signed one of his manuscripts with the pleonasm ‘Eriugena’ (Irish born). No evidence of his education survives. Johannes joined the court of Charles the Bald, possibly in the 840s, and achieved recognition as a liberal arts master.
    [Show full text]